LYCVENA B^TICA. 183 



1. Metallic spots near hind -margin of hind- 

 wings, white dash obsolete cegon. 



2. Metallic spots absent ; no blue scales 



on either male or female astrarche. 



b. Having about three black spots near the 

 base of the hind-wings ; females very similar 



1. Fringe white icarus. 



2. Fringe dark at the nervures, the 

 sprinkling of blue scales on the upper 

 surface of females of the same tint as the 

 blue of the corresponding males 



i. Male intense sky-blue bellargus. 



ii. Male pale silvery blue corydon. 



C. Without red spots or white dash : 



a. Upper surface cold sky-blue .' argiolus. 



b. Upper surface dark purple-blue, female brown semiargus. 



c. Very small, brown, male sprinkled with 

 silvery-blue minima. 



d. Large, brown suffused with blue, a band of 

 black spots near the middle of the upper sur- 

 face of all the wings . . arion. 



L. baetica, Linn. (Long-tailed Blue, or Pea-pod Argus) 

 (Figs. 203 and 204), though now usually included in the 

 list of British butterflies, has been taken on but few 

 occasions in this country, and is probably but a straggler 

 amongst us. It was first captured, I believe, in England, 

 in 1859, a season in which it was abundant in France, 

 and was taken in the Channel Islands. L. bcetica is 

 widely distributed, being common in South-eastern and 

 South-central Europe. The tails, together with the streaky 

 appearance of the under-surface of the wings and the 

 arrangement of the blue colouring of the upper surface, 

 cause this butterfly to have much the look of a Theda. 



As will be seen from the following list of captures 

 recorded in The Entomologist, few specimens have been 

 captured in England: 1859, Brighton; 1878, Freshwater, 



